World Jewish News

The Netherlands Can Boycott Durban-II.

Dutch Foreign Minister stated that his country will not participate in the UN conference Durban-II if anti-Israel (anti-Semitic) statements remain in the texts of speeches and project drafts.
Maxime Verhagen in his interview to the Dutch radio said he "will not participate in anti-Semitism" at the April conference in Geneva.
Israel and Canada have already stated they will not take part in this conference. The United States of America have expressed their protest but have not yet come to a final decision on their attendance.
"I have the impression that the only goal (of the conference) is to criticize Israel and condemn the Western countries for slavery and colonial history", Verhagen said.
During the conference in Durban (SAR) in 2001 the delegations of Israel and the USA had to leave the room as a protest against a resolution which equated Zionism and racism. This resolution was not adopted. However, others, which urged to boycott Israel, were.
Verhagen is afraid that they will put a similar show on in Geneva, which is why he said the Netherlands will cancel their participation if the resolutions drafts are not changed.
"This in not an easy decision for us. We will not miss a single opportunity to fight racism and discrimination, but we are not going to participate in a propaganda circus", the Minister said.